As a means to improve the quality, particularly, sharpness, of images formed on a color light-sensitive material, making the layers of the color light-sensitive material as much thin as possible has been studied. Especially in the case of a silver halide emulsion layer that is positioned closer to the support, because the scattering path of the light from the surface of the light-sensitive material is longer, the thinning of the layer by reducing the amount of the binder is known to be a useful means to improve the sharpness; as described in, e.g., Journal of the Optical Society of America, 58 (9), 1245-1256 (1968), and Photographic Science and Engineering, 16 (3), 181-191 (1972).
And as concrete means for thinning such layers, the reduction in the coating amount of gelatin, the reduction in the coating amount of couplers, the reduction in the amount of the high-boiling solvent for use in coupler dispersion, and the use of so-called polymer couplers, and the like are known.
The total dry thickness of the photographic component layers of an ordinary color light-sensitive material is mostly from 20 to 30 .mu.m. However, it has been found that if the thickness is reduced to, for example, 18 .mu.m or less, the color light-sensitive material, although improved on the sharpness, is deteriorated significantly in the graininess. This phenomenon is particularly significant where high-speed emulsion layers are thinned, and is construed to occur basically because the produced oxidation product of a developing agent, as soon as reacting with the coupler inside one layer, diffuses into another layer adjacent thereto to start coupling reaction thereinside, or bleaches other silver halide in the former layer, whereby the number of developing points is reduced, thus deteriorating the graininess. As a means to solve such the problem, the use of various scavengers to scavenge the oxidation product of a developing agent has been investigated. It has been found out, however, that such means, if adopted, is undesirable from the photographic characteristic point of view because it causes the color light-sensitive material to be deteriorated in the sensitivity as well as in the preservability.